With voting until July 1st, Husker fans will determine the “Sweet 16” of NU football memorabilia.

Photo Courtesy Kelly Mosier/NU Media Relations

Courtesy: NU Media Relations

06/23/2014

Randy York's N-Sider

As promised, our crackerjack Huskers.com social media team has come up with 32 precious pieces of Nebraska football memorabilia, so the Big Red Vote is on. Beginning today, June 23rd, through July 1st, Husker fans will determine the “Sweet 16” examples of Nebraska memorabilia to celebrate our 125th season of football this fall.

So prepare to inspect and prioritize what our Huskers.com team considered to be the top 32 pieces of memorabilia submitted through our gobigred@huskers.com email address, Facebook or Twitter. Those 32 bits of Husker history are divided into four eight-piece chunks of Nebraska football’s past and divided according to the “Old School” years, the Devaney Era, the Osborne Era and “Modern Times" – the four cornerstones in our time-tunnel transport through history.

Your votes in the days ahead will reduce the eight examples from each era to four examples from each time period. The Sweet 16 round of voting from July 7th to July 11th then will reduce the top four pieces of memorabilia into an “Elite Eight” with the top two entries from each time period emerging from July 14th to July 18th voting. The “Final Four” voting from July 21st to July 25 will represent the top piece of memorabilia from each era. The Championship voting will be July 28th to August 1st.

Elite Eight: Top Two Vote-Getters from Each Era

The Sweet 16 and Elite Eight head-to-head matchups are designed to give each era equal prominence. The Final Four will match the Devaney Era finalist with the Osborne Era Finalist and that winner will face the winner of the Modern Era vs. the Old School Era for a shot at the Grand Prize.

Our goal is to have the top two vote-getters from each era in the Elite Eight, and the No. 1 vote-getter from each era in the Final Four. That way, Husker fans will determine a champion in each designated era and an overall champion that will help us commemorate and celebrate 125 seasons of Nebraska Football Memorabilia before the Huskers begin their 2014 Fall Camp on Monday, August 4th.

Every Big Red fan who clicks this voting linkwill see a treasure chest of Nebraska Memorabilia collected from fans who took the time and had the energy to submit their own personal favorites to Huskers.com. We thank everyone that offered up something memorable for consideration in this unique contest.

Grand Prize Includes Corporate Sideline Tickets

Even though our Huskers.com panel selected what we considered the 32 most interesting submissions, the Grand Prize will be determined by you and the daily votes you can submit via Facebook, Twitter or through gobigred@huskers.com. The Grand Prize winner will receive the 125th Season Celebration Prize Pack that includes two corporate sideline tickets to Saturday's 8 p.m. Homecoming Game against Illinois on September 27th. The winner also will receive a two-night stay at Lincoln's downtown Holiday Inn and a Misty's gift card (travel and airfare are not provided).

The best news? Each of the 32 seeds is a story in and of itself and a point of interest for Husker fans across the country and around the world. All 32 are small chapters that could be buried in a vault and earn someone’s interest 100 years later. Why? Because Husker fans found something meaningful and memorable and submitted it for an electronic voting contest among the fans who have supported the Division I major college football leader in terms of wins over the last 50 years.

Have fun voting over the next 10 days and help us put the best memorabilia owner on the sideline for Homecoming this year.